Day: September 4, 2009

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Vote no on the Senate version of HB 1828

  By Labor, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Sometimes there are no good choices. No one wants the city of Philadelphia to adopt Plan C, the plan to balance the budget by drastically cutting services. And there is a risk that if the State House votes down the Senate version of HB 1828 we will wind up with it. But that is far from certain. There is time for further negotiation between the House and the Senate. Labor has some influence over some Republican state senators. And now that organized labor has recognized how bad 1828 it could put its whole force behind a clean bill that allows Philadelphia to raise the sales tax and reduce pension spending. And there is a long way to go before we can rule out City Council passing other, possibly better, taxes that replace sales tax revenues if 1828 is never passed. What is certain, however, is that 1828 violates a principle… Continue reading

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I was a liberal tea bagger

  By A political memoir, Health Care

Tonight we turned out a bunch of people for a Health Care Town Hall sponsored by Damian Dachowski, who used the event to announce that he would be running for Congress against Allyson Schwartz next year. Normally, HCAN in PA ignore most these events. Given that the press in Southeast PA pretty much doesn’t cover events held by issue activists unless there is controversy, it doesn’t make sense to show up and give the right wingers more publicity. And, given that we are a non-partisan campaign, we especially make a point of avoiding partisan events. But this was a special case. Allyson Schwartz has been a great champion of health care reform. Her districts is important in that a lot of people who live in it have influence far beyond it. It is a district that is becoming more progressive. And we expected a lot of press anyway given that… Continue reading

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Still not time to freak out about the public option. But it is time to organize!

  By Health Care

For the third time in the last few months, there are rumors in Washington that President Obama is going to drop his support of the public health insurance option. This has many of you worried. I’m a little worried, too. But I don’t still don’t think there is any reason to be freaking out right now. There is reason to act. And that’s why I will be following this up with some action steps you can take on the public option. And I’m asking you to go to the list of Let’s Get it Done events and find one to go to in the next few days. And now let me say a bit about what where health care reform, and the public option, stand right now. Continue reading